Aug. 1 (UPI) — Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the funeral prayers for slain Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday amid soaring fears of war escalating in the Middle East.
Video of the prayers published on X by Iran’s state-run Press TV shows Khamenei, known as Iran’s supreme leader, speaking over Haniyeh’s coffin at the University of Tehran where the funeral was held.
Haniyeh’s casket was then transported on a flatbed truck through Tehran streets clogged with thousands of mourners toward Azadi Square. Live video of the funeral procession was broadcast on Khamenei’s official website.
Haniyeh was killed early Wednesday at his residence in Tehran along with one of his security guards in an attack both Iran and Hamas blame on Israel, which has yet to directly comment on.
Israel and Iran have been in conflict for years, but it exploded into the open last fall. For 300 days, Israel has been waging war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in retaliation for the Iran-backed militia’s bloody surprise attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis and saw another 251 kidnapped.
Embolden by the war, two other Iran proxy militias — Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen — have been attacking Israel from across their borders.
Both Israel and the United States have responded to these attacks, including with Israel striking within Iran’s borders in April, but the assassination of Haniyeh in the capital Tehran “prepared the ground for a severe punishment,” Khamenei said in a statement Wednesday.
“Following this bitter, tragic event, which has taken place within the borders of the Islamic Republic, we believe it is our duty to take revenge,” Khamenei said.
The assassination of Haniyeh came a day after Israel killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Though Israel has not taken credited for the assassination of Haniyeh, it has for Shukr.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech that they are fighting a war “against Iran’s axis of evil.”
He warned the Israeli public of “challenging days” ahead following the Beirut strike.
“We have heard threats from all sides. We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand united and determined against any threat,” he said.
“Israel will exact a very heavy price for aggression against us from whatever quarter.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 39,500 Palestinians have been killed and another 91,000 wounded in the war.